Session 2: Hey, what's that cat? Report

General Summary

The group began with discussion of how to proceed, and whether to purchase horses for the group in order to travel at a slightly greater pace. There was some discussion of cost and Quirico asserted forcefully that he holds no coin, despite a fairly obvious, and heavy, coinpurse in his belt. Kaalam revealed he posesses a mouse cart, a fantastical device that may be hitched to a mouse and becomes a marvelous traveling cart, or with more mice a wagon. With this understanding the group elected to obtain a mouse or a few and use this wonderous item to travel north efficiently.

Quirico, acting quickly, went down the nearest alleyway in search of a mouse, and found one, but wanted to find the nest, so he followed it a good distance. Unfortunately, like many cities, dark alleyways and inattention can lead to misfortune, and a pair of thugs accosted the warrior unexpectedly. Quirico used an echo of a future self to even the odds and quickly dispatched one thug while the other fled. He picked up a mouse from nearby, then, choosing to leave the nest for others, and returned to the party only a little worse for wear. Kaalam became somewhat violently angry at the attempted mugging, and when some other, possibly related, thug somehow nicked a hand crossbow from Jeeves, sought to possibly hunt the entire thieves guild of the city in retribution, but the others counseled calm and the party bought a few more mice from a nearby urchin before replacing the hand crossbow and proceeding out of town North on the Silver Road.

Travel on the road was rapid and far smoother than expected. The mice scampered forward eargerly and quickly, covering ground faster than a team of horses. In appreciation, at some point along the road, Boris purchased a full wheel of cheese to feed to the mice in the evening. By evening the group had made excellent progress, and rather than push too far into the night, chose to rent rooms at an inn not long after sundown. The innkeeper sold rooms and meals at a good price, and the innkeeper's son stabled the warhorse. In the morning the party began arguing somewhat over a simple breakfast of wheat porridge when Kaalam began questioning Roisin (rho-sheen) about the purpose of their travel.

Why are we heading North? What is the destination? Are we just wandering without purpose, or do we have a destination in mind?
Roisin explained that she wished simply to explore the world, to see more than a sheltered princess might, or ought. The journey North, prompted by muttering of a magic ring, merely a direction, a travel till the road might end to see what may be seen. The party discussed how there are Dwarven holds in the mountains, and the road there is well traveled, busy until it enters the mountains as it travels through well settled farmland.

The party's deliberations were interrupted by the Innkeeper's son rushing in claiming that the warhorse had somehow unsaddled itself. Roisin and the others rushed in to find a perfectly normal horse with a saddle placed as one might expect, on a rail. The horse had not been brushed, however, so Roisin spent time caring for her horse and purposed not to rely on innkeepers for the task in the future. This quickly broke up the breakfast meeting, and the party proceeded with their travel, along the road shortly, with Roy again using magic to enable the warhorse to keep up with the magically empowered mice. The party made fantastic progress, once again, and sundown found them approaching a quiet town nearly a week's travel from the city. As the group approached the town, they were concerned to note a completely quiet road and silent village, a highly unusual situation on this busy road.

The party's concern was quickly justified as a flurry of crossbow bolts arched from the shadows either side of them. Quirico reacted quickly and raced to strike out at the leader of this bandit group. The party was otherwise caught by surprise, but recovered quickly. Quirico continued to savage the leader while Kaalam and the others quickly brought down a few of the bandits. The bandit leader struck Roisin's warhorse, and the strike, combined with foul poison, caused the horse to collapse, transforming instantly into a Tabaxi, a cat-like humanoid. Unfortunately, the Bandit leader also managed to call out to an ally previously hidden, and a powerful wizard stepped out and launched a magical ball of fire and flame into the party, burning Roisin and Kaalam. The party began to focus more on this powerful magical threat, as Roisin and Jeeves sought to keep the others alive in the face of powerful destructive magics. The Tabaxi transformed again into an Albino Death Weasel, and continued to hunt the bandit leader, but continued also to be struck by magic and poison, causing it to revert again to Tabaxi form and even fall to near death, saved only by Roisin's empowering cry. The bandit leader fled again, trading places with a bandit magically, and the Death Weasel savaged a bandit before pursuing the wizard. The wizard was protected by a shield that burned anyone who approached too close or struck them with a melee weapon, and this again brought the tabaxi low, only to be saved again by Roisin. The party managed to kill nearly all of the enemies, but the wizard managed to teleport away at the last moment, escaping to potentially hunt them down like rabid pets some other day.

The party explored the village, and found it completely empty. They found some equipment on the bandits, and collected this for future examination, but the lack of populace was very strange. The last place explored was the root cellar of the Inn, typically a secure place to save food and reserves. The party, on entering this space, encountered a thing of horror. A huge pile of bodies, the remains of substantially the entire town's population (probably over seventy persons). As the party looked on this scene, one of the bodies, the head half removed, stood and began to shamble forward.

Rewards Granted

From the bandits, the party recovered

• 4 light crossbows
• 5 scimitars
• 40 crossbow bolts (Roy took 3 to replace bolts used in combat)
• 3 suits of leather, badly damaged
• 1 suit of studded leather, filled with crushed viscera and somewhat damaged